How can an album recorded by childhood friends in a potato cellar in the most national romantic part of Norway conjure sonic images of neon palm trees, coconut hipsters and tropical paranoia?
Norwegian explorative synth-rockers Curvs' debut album, "Hauntropics", is a travelogue from the obscure parts of the subtropics: Hitchhiking rides along the Khyber Pass, opium farmers on the run, decadent hybrid environmenst in Port Louis, flamboyant eunuchs in Delhi, intoxicated pilots, disillusioned veterans, coconut hipsters and psychotic backpackers.
In this landscape Curvs moves into a cross field of dark electronic rock, tropical psychedelia, kraut and new wave.
Childhood friends, Hjalmar Myksvoll-Singh and Øystein Redalen together go by the moniker of Curvs. Half-indian/half-norwegian Hjalmar met his partner in crime and lifelong friend and companion Øystein in an Oslo suburb at the age of five.
With skateboards under their feet, weird instruments in their hands and even weirder music in their ears, the seeds of the dynamic duo were sown, that would bloom years later when the two immersed themselves in a studio bunker built in an old potato cellar, accessible only by rowing boat in the rural province of Telemark. There, the Hauntropics sound, inspired by short and long stays in the tropics and the desire to bastardize musical genres, was born out of home made compressors, rare pre amps and echo valves coupled with old drum machines, odd strings and analog synths from Japan.
The album is composed, performed and produced by Curvs and partly mixed by both Curvs and Nick Terry (The Libertines, Klaxons, Serena Maneesh, Kvelertak). Their live bassist Lasse Saurbrey joined in for the final mix of the song Atlantic Cologne.
On stage they are joined by brothers in arms Lasse Saurbrey (Lazy K) on bass and Joachim Amundsen Trana( Casiokids, Hypertext) on drums.
1. Khyber Pass, Pt. 1
2. Bamboo Town
3. Airwolf Gandhi
4. Blowpipe
5. Don Johnson
6. Delusive
7. Boeing 909
8. Khyber Pass, Pt. 2
9. Atlantic Cologne
10. Avian